It takes only one
by BottledBorealis
Summary: True friends always find some way to surprise you. Sometimes it's because they never give up on you, and others it's because they have an invisibility cloak. Kind of cheating really. This story is FemHarry/Hermione with some terrible jokes mixed in. Mostly lighthearted. Very Mild adult references and content.
1. Surprises

**_A/N: Welcome to 2016._**

 ** _I'll keep this short, but if you would prefer to just read the story I shan't be offended._**

 ** _I know this is said often but this is my first published story, I would greatly appreciate you taking time to provide constructive criticism, if you can spare it. That being said, the fact you are taking the time to read my work is more than I could possibly ask, I only hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it._**

 ** _The story will be centred on the budding relationship between Hermione Granger and Lynn Potter (The Girl Who Lived), this will be a romantic relationship so if that is not your thing I would suggest moving on. The chapters will likely have relatively large jumps in time between them, as I don't intend to hash out a complicated plot to tie this all together. It will be mainly light and fun so only the barest minimum of angst that saturated JK's last few books will appear when appropriate. The first chapter will be set in their fifth year, assume that cannon events have occurred unless stated otherwise with some obvious exceptions as the main protagonist is now female._**

 ** _Each chapter will likely only be 2500-6000 words in length and I'll warn you now, I tend to be very meticulous with my writing so updates may come slowly._**

 ** _Anyway enough with my rambling, I hope you enjoy it._**

 ** _BB_**

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 _Damn it, where did she go?!_ Hermione turned her head, frantically looking down each corridor searching for her raven-haired friend who'd fled moments earlier. This was just like her, she had stood in front of the most feared wizard of the century and found him lacking, but the moment feelings got involved she became this meek fretful girl who knew only how to run from her problems. This time was no different. Hermione could still feel the tingling that refused to die down the moment her friend's lips had touched her own. She didn't know what to think, this wasn't something you tended to plan for. So she had stood there in shock, her hand involuntarily reaching up to touch her lips before she could stop herself, then Lynn was gone, before the ghost of her kiss had even had a chance to fade.

Her instincts told her to follow and work, whatever this was, out before her courage failed her, and they were left to awkwardly step around each other for the foreseeable future. But for the first time in years she feared that this was a puzzle she wasn't best equipped to solve. Homicidal professor? No problem, it was the new guy. Mystery Slytherin monster? It was a _snake_ for Merlin's sake it didn't take a genius to figure that out. Triwizard tournament clues? Tricky, and against the rules, but like hell was she going to just sit there and not help a friend very probably in mortal peril, rules be damned. Mysteries of the heart however were well out of her comfort zone, something she would ordinarily write home about after hours of self-torment. Problem was she needed the answer now, not in the better part of a week.

Hermione lent her back against a wall and panted for breath, cursing the seemingly complete inability of wizards to accept change, a phone line home would have been a godsend right now. An hour had passed, she had spent much of that time running around aimlessly, asking anyone and everyone who might have seen her, but it was getting her nowhere. Not for the first time that evening she considered just returning to their shared dorm and holding Lynn's possessions hostage until she spoke to her. Before she could decide either way, Nearly Headless Nick floated casually through the wall of an unused classroom ahead of her, at the very least he could be persuaded to help her look, right? "Nick!" She yelled after him, still quite breathlessly, but he heard her. The Gryffindor ghost paused and looked over his shoulder, turning his head at an angle that should not have been possible, before gliding back toward her. When she came close he said in his usual stately tone "Good afternoon Miss Granger, how may I be of assistance?"

"Have you seen Lynn?" She asked quickly, unable to entirely hide her impatience. The ghost stroked his non-tangible beard in thought, as if it took a great deal of concentration to remember the past hour, but he seemed to catch on to her mood after a moment or two of exasperated silence on the part of Hermione, and promptly answered "Miss Potter? She ran passed me a little while ago; well I suppose _through_ me would be more accurate-"

"But where did she go?" She asked eagerly, _finally_ she had caught a break. The ghost frowned, though in confusion or annoyance at her rudeness she didn't know but she couldn't bring herself to care right then. "I believe she was heading for the astronomy tower, strange time to go there all things considered and she did seem rather upset come to think of it…" Hermione was already long gone by the time the ghost finished.

The beating of her feet against the stone floor echoed round the corridors loud enough to make her cringe. If the 'Toad' caught her running in the halls she would likely not escape her clutches until morning. Despite that unpleasant thought, she did not slow her pace and instead she berated herself for being such an idiot with every step toward the tower. All that time she had no idea that Lynn had those feelings for her, despite the plentiful hints, only now it seemed obvious. Those who had inadvertently witnessed it didn't seem at all surprised by Lynn's sudden weakness for geeky bookworms, had they known? Had she lead her on unintentionally? Was she the only one not to notice? How long had this gone on?

Her thoughts continued as such without respite until the moment she reached the stairs, only then did she notice how horrible she felt, like her gut had somehow fallen out through her feet. Lynn was, _probably_ , at the top of those steps. This was the closest thing to a fight the two girls had ever had, and she felt lost. What was she going to say, what did you say to a friend who kissed you full on the lips and ran off? Hermione didn't know much about love, but she knew you couldn't always choose who you fell in love with, was this her fault then, should she apologise?

With a gargantuan effort and a shake of her head she forced the thoughts to the back of her mind to deal with later, now wasn't the time for more questions, especially as she didn't know the answer to the first one. Almost to the top now, her hands were shaking and it certainly wasn't the cold, her heart drummed hard in her chest as she climbed the last few steps. There she was, a window was thrown open letting in the crisp afternoon air, Lynn sat on the sill with her knees pulled up against her chest, midnight black hair pulled over one shoulder exposing her flawless pale neck. She was gazing out at the school grounds impassively, completely ignoring the chill in the air, like she often did.

Hermione paused in the archway watching, her thoughts now inexplicably silent, she took a deep steadying breath and walked forward into the light "Lynn? Can I join you?" she asked tentatively. Lynn jumped so violently she very nearly fell out the window in surprise, in an instant the fright faded and her face flushed with colour. For a moment she seemed unable to form a response, then she rallied, cheeks still a rosy pink, and said in an unconvincing casual tone "Um sure, if you want"

Lynn avoided eye contact and resumed her visual of the school grounds, though it was clear her attention was not in it. Hermione joined her on the window sill and couldn't help but marvel at her friend's chosen spot, you could see the Quidditch pitch and the surrounding grounds of the castle from their vantage point as well as acres and acres of lush green forest. At any other time she might have enjoyed the view, but she could almost feel the tension rolling off Lynn in waves, and knew that she had to address the problem at hand now before Lynn ran off again. She briefly entertained the thought of obliviating them both, but that would solve little and change nothing, still, it was a tempting plan B. She swallowed dryly, knowing that if she said the wrong thing now it could do a lot of harm didn't help her nervousness. Her heart felt heavy with guilt at the prospect of rejecting her, but she couldn't think of any other way of setting things right. So she steeled herself and forged onward.

"I don't feel any less of you Lynn, you know that right? As far as I'm concerned I don't care what gender you are attracted to any more than I mind blood purity." Lynn didn't look at her, instead preferring to stare blankly at her knees, but nodded indicating that Hermione should continue. "And I'm flattered you think of me like that… I truly am, but…" she searched for a way to voice her confusing emotions but Lynn beat her to it "you're not like me, I know" her voice was tinged with self-loathing and bitterness, it was the way she usually sounded when speaking of her childhood. The similarity cut the unsocial bookworm to the core, now sure that she had somehow said the wrong thing. The misery now clearly noticeable in Lynn's visage was almost physically painful for her to see, without considering the foolishness of the action she shifted closer so they were practically side by side, intending to comfort her the only way she knew how. Lynn looked surprised at the move but did not comment and only eagerly made room for her on the wide sill. Her relief was palpable when she realised she wouldn't be rejected, and quickly started combing her hands through Lynn's hair, something she had recently found helped her friend relax, while she continued the war of thoughts within oblivious of her friend's curious glances.

"Why do you always have to be so nice to me?" The question was asked so silently that Hermione wondered if she was meant to hear it at all, but she answered anyway "because you're my best friend, and I hate seeing you like this" it was the bare truth, but somehow she felt it lacked in some way, 'best friend' felt so meaningless a phrase for someone who understood, accepted and supported her more than anyone else ever had before. The problem was she didn't know what Lynn was to her, she was special, had always been special to her, but what did that really mean? Ron was a good friend but he had also proven to be sometimes arrogant and thoughtless, it wasn't necessarily a problem, everyone had flaws, besides she knew he cared for them both in his own way, but Lynn's only problem was caring too much, if that was even a thing. If there was one person in the world she always knew would listen, not judge, but strive to understand, it was Lynn.

The silence was clearly making Lynn nervous now, she opened her mouth to speak only to shut it again several times as if thinking better of it, changing tack she got Hermione's attention (as if she didn't already have it) and her thoughts fell from her lips, as if she was confessing to a crime "I know I shouldn't have kissed you. It was unfair of me, I just couldn't… I've held it all back for so long it just… kind of happened…" she looked genuinely distressed and confused, reverting to that cute nervous tick of hers, winding some hair tightly around a slender digit as if she was attempting to curl it. _She really does love me,_ Hermione felt a comfortable warmth blossom in her chest at the confession, but it quickly receded in the wake of her friend's obvious misery. Lynn's hand took her own and pulled it away from her hair "Please, stop." It was said with little conviction and her hand lingered over Hermione's longer than was necessary before pulling away. Her skin tingled at the sudden contact, this time having to restrain an impulse to raise her hand to her lips. They were very close. She could feel the comforting heat of Lynn's body next to her in the cold tower room and could hear every hesitant breath she took.

"It doesn't matter" what doesn't matter? It made better sense in her head, of course it didn't matter. She would never turn her back on Lynn, it was silly that Lynn even considered she might lose her over a simple kiss. But it wasn't simple, not anymore. Regardless Lynn seemed to take her badly considered response the right way and finally started to relax a little, much to Hermione's relief.

An indeterminate amount of time passed as they both sat there in silence, neither of them willing to return to the reality that awaited them, both afraid of shattering this fragile feeling of closeness between them. When the sun finally began to fall behind the hills of the Scottish highlands, Hermione reluctantly gave in to her inner prefect and cited their need to return to the common room before curfew. With slow deliberation they started down the steps from the astronomy tower in an awkward silence. Though their little talk had not gone supremely badly, Hermione still felt upset with the outcome. This was not how it was meant to be, they never had these silences before and she was already missing Lynn's quirks, but fortunately for her fate had other ideas.

Peeves, in his ever mischievous mood, had taken to placing banana skins around the castle after a foolish first year muggle-born had mentioned their apparent slippy-ness. Despite that they generally weren't any slippier than the skin of any other fruit underfoot, Peeves had gotten rather good at placing them in just the right places to cause maximum mayhem. This was, of course, after filling the entire charms corridor with them and being chased off by an irritable half Goblin professor. In this particular case it seemed he had placed one in the shadow of the first step down on a short flight of stairs, a potentially dangerous trap for the unsuspecting. And as her usually observant mind was elsewhere Hermione stepped right onto it. A quick and painful tumble later she found herself at the bottom of the stairs, sitting on the cold floor with her books scattered around her. Peeves' high cackle could be heard revealing that he had undoubtedly been watching, he did not come to gloat however, clearly more interested in checking on his other traps for victims.

Lynn cursed Peeves colourfully under her breath with some of Sirius' choice swear words as she hurried down the steps two at a time. Her eyes searched Hermione's face for signs that she was hurt, but was only greeted with a slightly dazed sheepish smile, Lynn barely managed not to roll her eyes as she collected Hermione's books, slipping easily into the comforting familiarity as they both searched for the tomes in the dim light. Once Hermione's bag was once again full, Lynn swung it over her shoulder and held out her hand automatically to help her friend up. Hermione took it gratefully, but before she had a chance to orient herself properly Lynn pulled on her arm with a surprising amount of strength, lifting her with little apparent effort. When she was on her feet she found herself standing uncomfortably close to Lynn.

 _Too close!_ Hermione's mind chanted at her, she parted her lips to give voice to her feeling but the words stopped dead in her throat. She didn't want to back away, it was so cold in the hall and Lynn was so warm. She could feel Lynn's breath on her face, her hand felt hot on the exposed skin of her arm and the faint scent of pine that hung around her, usually muted, now clawed for her attention. Just when she was sure the moment would end and they would both break apart and blush, murmuring excuses for their odd behaviour, Lynn's lips closed on her own. The contact was gentle, and warm, so very warm. All thought of stepping away dissolved into blissful nothingness, her mind was silent, content to just feel her lips mashed against Lynn's as they both explored shyly but tenderly. Almost subconsciously Hermione's arms wrapped around Lynn's lean frame to pull her closer, relishing the feeling of their bodies pressed together so intimately. She was vaguely aware of Lynn pulling her out of the middle of the corridor while she ran a slender hand through Hermione's hair, the action only fuelling the fire that had long been smouldering just waiting for the spark.

Far too soon they heard the tapping sound of thick soled shoes striking the stone floor making the two entwined girls startle apart. Lynn recovered first and quickly grabbed the hand of the now truly dazed taller witch and led her through the deserted halls, taking a few short cuts to reach the Gryffindor common room. Appearing behind a tapestry down the hall from the portrait hole Lynn finally slowed and turned her beaming smile on Hermione, who instantly noticed the breath-taking change it had. Lynn had always been pretty, but now she looked so _alive_ , gone was the tired gloom and stress the war was piling on her replaced with happiness and wilfulness that she, Hermione Jean Granger, bushy haired book worm and insufferable know-it-all had put there.

"I never would have guessed you would be so… _Eager_." Lynn said playfully, adjusting her uniform that had somehow become ruffled.

Hermione's face instantly flushed red with embarrassment and she stuttered like a fool, fumbling for a reason for her strange behaviour but came up empty. "I love it." Lynn said with feeling cutting off her insecure rambling "I never thought you would…" She trailed off in favour of planting a chaste kiss on still swollen lips. Hermione's embarrassment didn't last, she leaned into the kiss as if enchanted, already loosing herself again, but Lynn pulled away.

"Come on, let's get to sleep. I don't know about you but I've got a lot to think about."

She turned with a wink and radiant smile, actually _skipped_ to the portrait of the fat lady and hastily let herself in. Hermione stood there for several minutes processing what had just transpired between them. When the significance of what had happened finally registered in her unusually sluggish mind her wistful grin dropped like a stone and she did a very un-Hermione-like thing "Shit…" she swore meekly before clumsily hurrying after Lynn. She had just kissed a girl, and _liked_ it!?


	2. Lonely days

**_A/N:_** **I'm back!**

 **First, I was pleasantly surprised by how many people seemed interested in this story, and would like to give you all a very enthusiastic thank you for the lovely reviews and favourites! Second, I would like to deeply apologise for how very long I've taken to get this chapter finished. I expect many of you would like to throw things at me, as you've now likely forgotten what the first chapter was and are having to re-read it.**

 **I originally had this planned for submission on April 1** **st** **, but I was unhappy with it and life happened and blah blah… 2016 has been an absolutely crazy year for me so far, for both good and bad reasons. I won't bore you with the details. So… I basically re-wrote the whole chapter from the ground up and have hopefully improved on the last one [** ** _he says unconvincingly_** **] and given Lynn's character a bit more depth.**

 **This chapter is set several months after chapter 1, in the summer break after 5** **th** **Year ended.**

 **As always, I would love to get constructive criticism from you lovely people. So if you have a couple minutes to spare please post me a review to tell me your thoughts.**

 **Anywho, please ignore me and read on!**

 **BB**

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 **WARNING: This chapter contains some mild adult references. Certainly not enough to merit an M rating in my opinion, but thought I'd warn you anyway.**

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 _"You'll have to kill me," whispered Sirius._

Hands clenched the bedsheets as her body snapped rigid. _No, it was a lie. It could not be true._

 _"Undoubtedly I shall in the end," said the cold voice._

A sharp inhale of breath and the hands held ever tighter, nails biting into the soft flesh of her palm.

 _"But you will fetch it for me first, Black… you think you have felt pain thus far? Think again…we have hours ahead of us and nobody to hear you scream…"_

SLAM! "Hoot!"

Lynn groaned as her whole body protested its sudden contact with the floor of her room. She raised her head off the wood and wearily took note of the low light of dawn coming through her window. Letting her head fall back to the floor with an audible 'thunk', she pulled the duvet tighter around herself and lamented the loss of another night of sleep.

She sat up slowly, massaging her throbbing head. Again and again visions had appeared to her, each just as vivid and believable as the first. The worry and stress they dredged up, which sat in her stomach like a coil of hot lead, had begun to dull through the near constant repetition. But she was so damn tired of it.

She briefly entertained the tempting idea of screaming and throwing her various possessions out of the too-small window of her bedroom. Instead of giving in to her fantasies, Lynn wound her fingers deep in her hair, readying herself to tear it out, but never quite reaching that level of despair. The absence of the usual summer distractions were taking a worse toll than normal. The letters this summer had been rather trying. Ron was usually a bad writer, but this year he seemed to have made it his mission to make sure she didn't get bored. It was a lovely idea, very sweet. Problem was, most of his letters revolved around or at least mentioned quidditch at some point. So when she finished reading each one, newly invigorated with fresh sports gossip, she looked around at the dingy walls and remembered. _Oh yeah, I'm not allowed outside._ That always put her in such a great mood.

Thankfully there was also Luna and Nevil, who had both taken to sending her letters occasionally. Luna's letters were usually worth a good laugh, but replying to them was sometimes difficult and definitely not something one should do when feeling irritable. Nevil's letters were surprisingly witty, and the ones she looked forward to reading the most. But he tended only to write when he had something to tell her, so they came rarely. He seemed to have taken it upon himself to be her own personal informant, being close to one of the very few 'nice' pureblood heads of house had its advantages. Augusta was an influential woman after all.

She didn't have any letters from Hermione, not that she wanted any. The less thought about that the better.

Sirius' heavy footsteps broke her wallowing as he rushed to her door and rapped on it sharply, clearly only just remembering at the last second not to barge in to the teen witch's room.

"Are you ok Lynn, I heard a crash?" he asked with obvious concern.

"Yeah" she said, her mouth feeling dry. "Just dropped a book is all." trying her best to sound nonchalant.

There was a pause as he absorbed this rather obvious lie, but he made no comment on it as he answered. "Breakfast is downstairs when you want it, Pup." Before she heard him walk back down the stairs.

"Ok" she said in reply, if only to break the suddenly oppressive silence that settled around her. She untangled herself from the sheets and pulled on some jeans and an old t-shirt. Before venturing out, she gave a stroke to Hedwig in apology for waking her again. The bird puffed up her feathers and pretended not to enjoy it, which made Lynn smirk in amusement.

She barely registered her surroundings as she descended the grimy staircase of 12 Grimmauld Place, pausing only momentarily in her journey to automatically step over the second from last step. Sirius told her he had jinxed the step years ago, to trip anyone with Black blood who stepped on it; a retaliation against his mother burning his muggle magazines he claimed. She crept quietly past Sirius' mother's painting, managing for only the second time to do it successfully, and opened the kitchen door.

Sirius cast a silencing charm on the door the moment it closed, and greeted her with a small smile over the rim of his coffee. Black, no sugar of course. She forced herself to return his smile and sat down to the breakfast he had cooked for her. To be fair to him, the breakfast looked quite good, but her stomach was still churning from her nightmare, so the mere idea of eating it made her feel ill. Resigning herself to yet another miserable day stuck in her not-so-gilded cage, she searched for a topic of conversation that would keep Padfoot off her back, and, more importantly, provide a little entertainment. She waited until he had taken a gulp of the steaming brew, before she struck. "So… Padfoot," she started, with an innocent look many had learned not to take at face-value. "I hear you were quite a womaniser in school."

To his credit, he managed not to choke on his coffee when his goddaughter posed the not-so-innocent question. Though he was not above spluttering, and the dark liquid was running down his chin by the time he formed a coherent answer.

"Who the bloody hell told _you_ that?!"

Lynn picked at her food leisurely. "Professor McGonagall might have mentioned it, once or twice." she lied. The only thing she got out of the stern woman when she asked for stories about Sirius Black, was a tight lipped scowl, angry muttering or a resolute "No!" Ron thought she had a death wish for popping that question as many times as she had; to deputy head teachers, potion masters and ministry officials alike.

"Hmmm… Well, Mini only ever really caught me running _away_ from girls, not after them…" he said pensively, wiping away the spilt coffee and eyeing her curiously.

Lynn couldn't restrain a rogue eyebrow when she heard the nickname. _Mini? I've got to use that one even if it kills me. Which, realistically, is quite possible…_

"And I mean running away from them because they wanted to hex me, not because I'm desperately handsome, though that is also true." He added with a wistful grin.

Lynn made sure he noticed her dramatically rolling her eyes in response to his self-appreciating comment, before turning back to the food she had barely touched. She could _feel_ his eyes on her, he wasn't even attempting to hide it. To her irritation, she found she couldn't think of a single comment, sarcastic or otherwise, to keep him distracted with him giving her _that_ look. After a silent battle of wills was fought over who would break the silence first, Lynn finally gave up.

"What!?" she asked, with much more hostility than she had intended.

"I can tell you're trying to distract me, kiddo." he said calmly, unfazed by her apparent anger. "You can never hold a conversation when something's bothering you, and being quiet just isn't in your nature." he said with a wry smile. "Lilly was the same. Well, the brooding part anyway."

Lynn slumped in her chair feeling defeated, her anger treacherously abandoning her.

"Nice try though." he added lightly.

"I do not brood." She said grumpily, staring at her godfather reproachfully.

"Then why did you come down stairs with an expression like you were walking to your death." he deadpanned. "I know my pancakes aren't brilliant, but you could at least try to make _me_ feel better about it."

She snorted, but the amusement snuffed out as quickly as it had come. She gave him a noncommittal shrug, hoping he would drop the question, but it wasn't to be. He adopted a look most parents would use to make their children fess up to wrongdoing. The sheer irony of it _should_ have left her cackling heartily, but this time his usually unbeatable power to make her smile only served to twist the knife deeper. So her reaction was more of a grimace, before she hastily broke eye contact to examine the fascinating details of the dirty kitchen floor.

"Just had a bad dream." she murmured, half hoping he wouldn't hear her.

He did. His posture stiffened and all trace of humour vanished from his face, replaced by a look of alarm.

"Not that kind of bad dream." she quickly amended, gesturing wildly with her hands until colour returned to his face.  
"Just a normal one." The last thing she wanted was to be locked behind even more protections, or be subjected to any more gruelling occlumency lessons, and having visions was a one way ticket to that cosy little corner of misery.

Sirius sat back and studied her for a moment, with an intensity that made her fidget uncomfortably, before abruptly breaking eye contact and sighing heavily.

"Do you know Lynn, that sometimes you're an awful liar?" he said disappointedly, with a tired shake of his head that instantly made her feel guilty.

"Talk." he ordered firmly, though not unkindly.

She quashed the flair of defiance that instantly lit at the demand, though her jaw locked, instinctively readying herself for a fight or argument that her conscious mind knew wouldn't come from him. Lynn forced herself to relax, breathing deeply, and dragging words out from behind her teeth.

"There's not much to talk about." she started slightly defensively, but after taking a moment to collect her thoughts again she tore down this last barrier. "Most of the time the nightmares are pretty standard. Oh you failed this person and they're going to die because of you, how could you! That kind of thing." Sirius nodded gravely, he was certainly familiar with that kind of nightmare.

"But sometimes, I get ones that are much worse..." Her heart beat faster and her skin prickled un-naturally just thinking back on them. "I'm always killing or torturing people, but it isn't like a normal dream. Everything seems more solid and real. I feel awake and aware but the thoughts in my head aren't me, they are vicious and murderous." Lynn stared unseeingly and silently off into nothing for a moment. "And I love every minute of those dreams… until I wake up." Lynn started when Sirius gripped her shoulder reassuringly. He looked worried. She swallowed dryly and quickly averted her eyes from his stormy grey ones before continuing on out of impulse, her thoughts spilling out of her mouth like a confession. "When I wake from those dreams it's like I keep a part of it with me, for a moment I… I want to kill… I want to torture." She put her head in her hands, trembling with suppressed fear and guilt.

Sirius looked down at his goddaughter as he tried to control his expression. He suspected that these dreams certainly weren't just dreams, and that terrified him. It was very unusual to have visions at all, let alone multiple ones, and Dumbledore knew something, that much was clear. Resolving to bleed some more information from the headmaster, he moved to comfort Lynn.

"That isn't you."

Lynn raised her head to look at Sirius who was now kneeling in front of her, and for a moment she saw someone else, who had said and done something similar not so long ago, but she swatted the memory aside quickly as a familiar pain bloomed in her chest. It would not help her to think of that now.

"You aren't like that, everyone knows you aren't like that." Sirius continued, oblivious to her wayward thoughts as he wrapped her in a tight hug. She didn't really take in his words but allowed herself to relax into his embrace, enjoying the feeling of affection freely given. It was something she had only recently become accustomed to.

Sirius cleared his throat after a warm and lengthy embrace "Excuse me, I think I've got something in my eye." He pulled away, slowly and theatrically pulling out a handkerchief to dab at his eyes, eliciting a weak laugh from Lynn. He didn't comment on the way her eyes glistened and stayed downcast, or when she discreetly wiped away the moisture with a sleeve when he was pretending to blow his nose. He always let her feel in control, it was a curtesy no one else afforded to her.

"On a slightly lighter note, I've been meaning to ask you something." Sirius said with an undecipherable expression, once he'd managed to tempt a genuine smile out of her with his theatrics. Lynn was silently beyond grateful for the change in subject.

"You remember when we were all in Dumbledore's office a couple months back?" he asked pointlessly, of course she remembered, it was difficult to forget. She nodded as a broad smile split her face, the event was still the source of much amusement between the two of them. "What did Dumbledore say to you when he had changed, something about doing it before?" Sirius asked with a puzzled expression.

She scrunched up her face, trying to recall her headmaster's exact words after he had polyjuiced into a physical copy of her, attempting to catch the deatheaters at the ministry unawares. Lynn had informed the order of her vision, and so Voldemort's ploy had been discovered and turned against him. "He said he had used polyjuice a few times, though this was the first time it was entirely by his own choice. Which raises more questions than it answers really…" Lynn said with an expression that said she wasn't quite sure if she should be horrified or curious.

Sirius snorted "No kidding." He said, twirling his wand between his fingers absentmindedly. "Did you see dear old Ronald's face when he was watching Moody transform into him? It was quite the picture."

Lynn smiled widely "Yup, sure did. I thought he was going to vomit." she said with a disturbing amount of delight.

"I don't get what he was so disturbed over, I had to witness it going the other way." Sirius said with an exaggerated shiver. "And trust me when I say that's worse… Let's just say Ron's clothes are much smaller than they look."

Lynn turned a horrified look to her Godfather. "Oh, sweet merciful Merlin! Please don't ever put that image in my head ever again." She said breathlessly.

"Now you understand why I wake up screaming sometimes." he nodded gravely, not quite able to hide his amusement at her antics.

"I must admit, I do feel kind of bad for Moony though. He looked so uncomfortable-"

"He did and it was brilliant." Sirius said, cutting her off with a wicked grin. "Lupin to Luna, oh the irony! There are so many possible jokes that I don't even know where to begin."

"You're so evil, Padfoot." she said jokingly before typically joining in. She cocked her head to one side quizzically, and stared off into nothingness with a wide eyed expression, before saying in an admirable impression of Luna's wistful voice "It's okay Professor, I trust you, and I know you're not strange."

Sirius chuckled "I tried so hard not to laugh at that I might have given myself an aneurysm, his face was just so priceless. Almost as priceless as your own while looking at your twin." He said teasingly. "Never knew Dumbledore was such a prankster, I could have sworn I saw him wink at Kingsley while he was transfiguring his robes. Don't think I've ever seen him have so much fun."

Lynn looked at him curiously, her stomach doing that irritating flipping that it always did when conversation strayed in to this kind of territory. "Padfoot, you know Dumbledore… err… has different _tastes_ don't you?" Lynn asked with a little hesitation.

He looked at her blankly. "I'm not following…" Sirius said after a rather lengthy pause.

"He batts for the other team."

"Is that supposed to be a quidditch reference?" he asked perplexed.

Lynn rolled her eyes and tried again a bit more directly. "He is partial to a wand rather than a holster."

Again, another blank stare.

"Gahh!" Lynn threw up her hands in exasperation, and resorted to some very crude hand gestures to get across her meaning. Lynn watched his reaction closely, and noted with relief that when his eyes reverted to their original size there was no revulsion present in his expression.

"What!? Oh! No he isn't, is he?" he said uncertainly.

She spared him a pitying look. "It's very obvious Padfoot, I'm frankly amazed you hadn't noticed. He isn't exactly subtle." She said, thinking back on the yule ball during the tournament in fourth year. The headmaster had led a startled - yes startled - Professor Snape onto the dance floor late into the evening. What followed was, without a doubt, the funniest three and a half seconds of her life. But she hadn't told Sirius about that, she was saving it for a day he felt down or grumpy, maybe she would gift him the memory for his birthday. That pensive in the Potter vault was just gathering dust anyway…

"I always thought the way he acted was just part of him being… well…"

"Eccentric?" she answered with an amused smirk.

"Yeah" he said with a sheepish smile.

"Most of it _is_ because he's eccentric." She said with a shrug "Doesn't make the signs that aren't any less obvious..." she suddenly trailed off, a thought occurring to her, before she narrowed her eyes at Sirius incredulously. "Wait a sec, back up… you think I would have let a strait, lonely old man polyjuice into me? Don't you think that's a bit creepy?"

"Well when you put it like that, yes, it does sound weird." Sirius said pensively "But in my defence, this _is_ Dumbledore we are talking about. I have trouble imagining him swearing."

Lynn pictured in her mind's eye the headmaster stubbing a toe on his desk, only to jump around in pain shouting 'Shhhugar Quills' and 'Fffizzing Whizzbees'.

"Yeah," Lynn said distractedly "he'd probably blush."

The pair of them sat there for the remaining hours of the morning and into the afternoon, speaking about many topics, both light hearted and slightly darker. But after a late lunch when the clock on the mantelpiece showed the time was almost four, Sirius casually let slip some unwelcome news.

"I took the liberty of inviting Hermione round by the way. We have all been asked to stay at the Weasley's till the end of summer term, so I thought we could go over together. She should be arriving about now, actually." He said brightly, then resumed flicking through the paper they had been openly mocking not ten minutes before.

Lynn froze and turned an intense glare on her godfather, he pretended not to notice and took his time to look up, eventually acknowledging her look with an unconcerned "What?"

"So, dearest _godfather_ , am I to assume you forgot to tell me about this?" She said in a dangerously sweet tone.

"Must have slipped my mind." He said calmly, and took a loud slurp of his third coffee of the day without breaking eye contact.

A moment later there was a loud gong sound which reverberated through the house, making Lynn almost fall out of her chair in sudden panic. "That should be her, you better go greet her." her godfather said, looking insufferably pleased with himself. Lynn scowled darkly at Sirius and silently promised him retribution, before dashing from the room, fervently hoping against hope that he was joking. But she knew deep down that he never made idle threats.

* * *

There was a flair of green as Hermione stepped out of the flue. She brushed the ash off of her jeans as her eyes searched the room, quickly finding what they were looking for. She smiled uncertainly, beginning to regret wasting time planning out what she would say, as the carefully structured apologies fell apart in her mind like a house of cards in a sudden gust. Her hair was tied back and had clearly been purposefully tamed from its usual frizzy state. Several strands had escaped from a short pony tail to elegantly frame her face, far too well for it to be accidental. And her clothes were a step above the simplistic style Hermione usually favoured. She took a hopeful step forward, waiting for some kind of reaction from the dark haired girl, who had been looking on impassively from the moment she arrived.

Without a word, Lynn broke eye contact and walked out of the living room. Hermione watched her walk away, feeling the weight of her failure suddenly come crashing onto her shoulders. The strained smile dropped from her face like a stone, and her throat tightened as her emotions threatened to get the better of her. Swallowing down the guilt and hurt she rushed after Lynn, leaving her trunk behind.

Lynn was at the door to her room when Hermione caught up with her. "Wait!" Lynn's hand paused on the door handle but she didn't turn around, or make any other indication that she had heard her at all. "Please don't shut me out." Hermione said, voice completely void of her usual confidence and lips turned decidedly downward.

Lynn spun round, hair swinging out dramatically in a manner reminiscent of Snape's billowing robes. "I don't know Granger, sounds like a pretty big ask for me." Despite the way her eyes blazed with anger, the pain in her voice could not be masked.

" _You_ were the one who drifted away and shut _me_ out. _You_ were the one who suddenly couldn't _stand_ being _near_ me. _You_ were the one who disappeared off home without so much as a _goodbye_ at the end of term."

The words struck her like physical blows, each hitch in Lynn's voice brought a sharper spike of guilt through her heart than the last. She bore the pain willingly, it was well deserved, but her shame didn't allow her to look Lynn in the eye for long.

"Now you suddenly want to talk to me? Well, maybe I think you're too late." She said scathingly, turning away so Hermione couldn't see how much she had truly affected her, before shouldering her door open and slamming it shut with as much force as her diminutive frame could manage.

When the door slammed in Hermione's face, her composure finally slipped and the tears ran silently down her face. She leaned against the divide, wishing she had the courage to turn the handle, but she did not, so she curled up with her back against the solid wood and struggled to quieten the sobs that she could withhold no longer. It was her fault.

On the other side Lynn was in a similar position, her back pressed against the closed door as she fought to stem the flood of angry tears. After a few minutes, she was startled by the sudden appearance of a neatly folded sheet of paper that had been slipped under her door. A heartbeat later an equally muggle pen followed it. Lynn picked up the paper and opened it up to reveal Hermione's flowing script. "I'm sorry." She felt her anger surface again and promptly ripped up the offending message. She shoved the remains and pen back under the door and sat back again, her nails biting painfully into her palm for the second time that day.

A second sheet of folded paper came moments later, Lynn snatched it up and read. "I made a mistake." The temptation to tear this one up as well was palpable, but she also wanted to see where Hermione was going with this. So Lynn scrawled "Did you?" underneath, attempting to channel as much sarcasm as possible into the written words. She folded the paper deliberately askew, which she knew Hermione couldn't stand, before shoving it under the door with far more force than was warranted.

The paper came back after several tense minutes, which Lynn spent trying to convince herself that each passing second without a reply didn't cumulatively bother her. When the reply did finally come she snorted at the once again perfectly folded paper, forcefully pushing aside her pesky insecurities to read the note with a critical eye. "I was scared and confused. This was all new to me and I didn't know what to do with myself, or who to turn to. I'm not confused anymore." Lynn swallowed dryly and pushed the paper back under the door.

 _You're going to have to do better than that._

This time the pause was much longer, and just as she had all but convinced herself that Hermione had left, the paper was slowly and delicately slid under the door again. Lynn stared at the white rectangle, wearily willing it to disappear and allow her life to go back to being less complicated, but to her chagrin it did not magically disappear. So she hesitantly picked it up and read. "I know that isn't an excuse. I just want you to know that I wish I could change how I acted. I hurt you, and I can't forgive myself for that, so I certainly can't expect you to forgive me for it. You're angry, like you should be, but if there is anything I can do for you to give me another chance I will do it. Anything."

Lynn read and re-read the message at least three times before scrawling her bitter reply.

"You can leave."

She regretted answering with that almost immediately, it was too harsh, too uncompromising. She wanted to give Hermione another chance, but her pride would scarcely allow it.

"Never." came the almost instantaneous reply on unfolded paper. Hermione's usually studiously neat handwriting had been steadily getting worse as the exchange dragged on, now it looked positively shaky, as if it had taken a great effort to write the simple word.

Lynn closed her eyes, trying to suppress the way her heart leaped at the implications. _Damn it, stay angry, remember she made you cry yourself to sleep that night… oh, screw this…_

Lynn stood and yanked open the door. Hermione jumped up and spun around to face Lynn, she looked awful, her eyes were red rimmed and dim. Lacking their usual lease of life and animation.

 _She's suffered enough._

Lynn grabbed Hermione by the front of her shirt and dragged her into her room before leaning up to press her lips firmly to Hermione's.

* * *

"About time you two made up, I was getting..." Sirius's voice faded into nothing and his mouth fell open in a comical O shape.

No doubt if Sirius's much younger self had walked in on something like this, he would have dived for a camera. But as it was, he was now far older and one of the girls was his surrogate daughter, whom he could remember very clearly as a baby, and that made it all kinds of wrong. And then of course, his luck got worse…

 _Oh crap she's noticed you! Say something funny and walk away!_

"Wooooooops! Ignore me girls, I didn't see a thing." He waved awkwardly at the red-faced teens and backed out hastily.

 _Oh very smooth, Padfoot… I'm so doomed._

Sirius bolted for the study and closed the door firmly behind him. Putting his back to the door, he frantically searched for something to barricade it with when Lynn's voice drifted through, startling him half out of his skin.

 _"_ Sirius, let me in."

"Err, Sirius isn't here…" He cleared his throat and shifted to an impressive imitation of Kreature's croaky voice. "It's me Kreature, what does filthy half-blood want?"

There was a pause then Lynn's voice came through again, slightly irritated. "That's very amusing Sirius, but Kreature is right here". And he was, Sirius could hear him muttering. "Good-for-nothing master is hiding from the underage witchies he is, scared of them Kreature thinks. Disgraceful, waste of noble blood that he is. What would mistress say?"

"Kreature, could you open this door?" Lynn asked sweetly.

"Kreature won't listen to the Potter girl, no he won't."

"Ha!" Came Sirius' slightly muffled triumphant exclamation.

But Lynn wasn't to be denied. "I suppose you're right Kreature, Sirius probably wants to hide in there all day. I'm sure he would simply hate having to come out…"

There was a terrifying moment of silence while Kreature absorbed this, before the door swung open, catapulting him halfway across the room where he landed in a sprawl on the carpet. He quickly sat up in a cross legged position and rested his chin in his hands, smiling innocently up at them.

When Lynn's eyes met his own, he could see the moment her mind went blank as she realised precisely why she had followed him. She stood there with her mouth slightly open and her face getting redder and redder until Sirius could handle it no longer. He burst out laughing. Lynn retaliated grumpily by gesturing rudely at him, but was instantly reprimanded with a firm smack on the back of the head from Hermione. Who seemed to promptly regret it, and avoided Lynn's eyes guiltily as Lynn watched in suppressed amusement.

"You don't have any more secrets like that do you? No hidden appreciation for the Chudley Cannons?" Sirius asked lightly, once he'd managed to get his laughter under control.

"No, the Cannons suck, everybody knows that." Came Lynn's slightly confused reply.

"Oh thank Merlin, I'm not sure I would have survived that one." He said jokingly, getting back to his feet and brushing non-existent dust off his clothes.

"So… you don't mind that I'm… that we're-"

"Does it make you happy?" He cut her off, smirking at her uncharacteristic loss of words.

"Well, yes but-"

"Then not at all."

Lynn all but tackled Sirius in a hug of pure relief that had them rolling on the floor, while his warm barking laughter filled the room.

"I was positive you were hiding someone from me, I mean, I was getting prepared to do the 'That's my little girl' speech that your father and I rehearsed before you even had your first birthday." He said, still chuckling to himself.

Lynn glanced mischievously at Hermione. "You can still do that." she said with a playful grin.

"I'd really prefer if you didn't." Hermione squeaked, but they both ignored her.

"Yeah, I can, but it doesn't have quite the same effect when that person is also someone else's 'little girl." He actually looked genuinely put out that there was no hapless teenage boy to scare witless.

An evil grin snuck its way onto Lynn's face when an idea of how to cheer him up came to her, she leaned close to Sirius and whispered her idea in his ear. A strikingly similar grin appeared on his face. "Have I mentioned that I love how devious you can be, Pup?"

* * *

"I'm still mad at you, you know." Lynn whispered when Mrs Weasley bustled off to finish making dinner, and the attention of the other present redheads was turned away. "Don't think luring me into smooching you made me forget that I hate you right now."

Hermione's face fell and she nodded gloomily, still not quite meeting Lynn's eyes.

Lynn rolled her eyes. "Come on Mione, lighten up. I'm just teasing."

"In that case… how do you feel about round two?" Hermione whispered tentatively, her eyes sparkling mischievously, with a sly smile playing at her lips.

Lynn stared at Hermione in amazement with her mouth hanging slightly open, finding herself unable to respond as Hermione raised an eyebrow, patiently waiting for an answer with bolstered confidence. And that was hot. That was definitely hot.

"No snitches to catch here, Lynnie my dear." said Fred, sidling over to place a finger under her chin to close her mouth.

"Don't fret Lynn, you're not the only one to be struck dumb by our dashing good looks and rambunctious charm." Added George, giving Hermione a wink and coming to stand at Lynn's other side, with Ron following behind him.

"Push off twin one." Lynn said to George, recovering her wits.

"Why is Gred always twin one?" Fred asked with fake incredulity.

"Because he's clearly the most handsome and witty of the two of you." she said brightly, surreptitiously accepting the three sickles that George handed her.

"Lynn, what are you up to?" Hermione said resignedly, a little of the old familiarity peeking through.

"Just a little business transaction." She whispered evasively back to her with a mischievous smile, only to notice Sirius making his way over to them, using him as an excuse not to explain further. She locked gazes with him and gestured to Ron with her eyes, he smirked and then schooled his expression into one of stern indifference, before clearing his throat to get the redhead's attention.

"Ronald, a word, if you please." Sirius said, in a voice that brokered no argument.

"Err… Sure" Ron said, clearly a little startled at being called out. He followed Sirius out of the room, nervously glancing at Lynn, who shrugged casually. The moment he was gone the twins both turned to her for an explanation.

"And the thought of me being entirely innocent in this never crossed your minds?"

"Not even for a second" they both intoned together.

"The satisfaction is written all over your face-" said Fred with mock disappointment and a shake of his head.

"-you should learn some professional distance." Advised George.

"She's convinced Sirius to give Ron 'the talk'. Hermione explained, and the twins both winced in sympathy.

"Ouch, you don't pull your punches do you Lynn?"

"Oh don't be such a wus Fred." Lynn said without any remorse.

"Hey, in my defence he is currently on the run from the law for killing thirteen people."

"He didn't actually kill those people though." Interjected Hermione.

"We know that, but that doesn't mean he isn't capable of killing pesky little teenage boys who 'date' his goddaughter." George said wisely.

"Oh shush, sit back and enjoy Ron's expression when he comes back in."

"Yes, Ma'am." The twins replied with evident relish.


	3. Lies (Part 1)

A/N: I know it's been a while, but in my defence this chapter kept getting longer and longer. So, yeah I'm posting this chapter in two halves. I couldn't justify a single chapter that was over 7000 words long to myself and I was taking **way** too long.

Hope you enjoy!

BB

* * *

"Did you always know?"

Lynn groaned internally and resisted the urge to bang her head against the desk, repeatedly. Hermione had convinced her to let Ron know about their relationship. And while she had never been against the idea per-se, Lynn had her reasons why she hadn't said anything until now. Though most of her fears had been proven groundless, it was also proven that some of those fears were exactly on point.

Since that fateful evening, she had been subjected to random well-meaning questions every time they were alone. She had answered the first wave of questions with good intentions, genuinely wanting her friend to understand. The questions had predictably branched out considerably since then, and Lynn was beginning to lose her famously thin patience.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly, "I just want to understand."

And clearly her exasperation showed.

"Did you always know you had feet?"

He looked at her confusedly and then cast his gaze downward to study his shoes for a few seconds, but that didn't seem to provide him any answers.

"Err… yeah, I guess so."

"Really? Good for you then." Lynn said, as if that explained everything.

Ron grimaced. "Why is it that when I ask you a question, I sometimes come out knowing less than when I started?"

"Must be the nargles, I hear they are awful this time of year." Lynn replied distractedly, folding a page of the prince's book that listed instructions on how to make some kind of poultice that, apparently, cured bad headaches.

 _Bet it wouldn't cure red-headed ones though,_ she thought glumly, before spying yet another curse written in one of the margins. For enemies, worryingly.

 _Damn, this guy has some serious issues._

Deciding to try it later, in direct opposition to the voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Hermione, she snapped the book shut and put it back in her bag.

"Fred and George barely even bat an eyelid when they walked in on me kissing Hermione last year, yet I get a million and one questions from you." She cast her eyes skyward and let out a long suffering sigh, "Why me?"

Ron ignored her in favour of looking pointedly at the bag she'd just slung over her shoulder. "Was that really one of Lockheart's books? You swore to me you hated the guy."

"What?!" She asked incredulously, before recognising the twins' opportunistic prank for what it was and groaned, giving the bag swinging at her side a glare as if she could see through the fabric to the offending book within.

 _Stupid bloody ginger toerags._

"Was it the prince's book?" Ron asked as they exited the library, the gaze of an irritated madam Pince ensuring they left her precious domain swiftly.

"Yeah, and it looks like the twins have not done _exactly_ as I asked." Lynn replied, clearly already plotting how to get them back.

"Why did you even ask them to hide it?"

Lynn just looked back at him, unimpressed.

"Okay, Hermione then. Why didn't you ask Sirius to do it?"

"Because I'm not sure I'd get it back if I gave it to anyone halfway responsible…" Lynn trailed off and shook her head in disbelief. "I just implied that Sirius is responsible, and I actually kind of believe that." She said, looking vaguely shell-shocked.

"I suppose he would think it's dangerous, considering some of the spells you found, but it's not like it's a deatheater handbook or anything like that. It did come from Slughorn's classroom, right?" Ron reasoned, with all the authority of a drunken scholar.

"Exactly! If it starts talking about sacrificing the blood of a virgin or something I'll hand it in, but at the moment it's helping me through potions." Lynn said, with far more conviction than the Hermione in Lynn's head really believed.

"The blood of a virgin?" Ron whispered incredulously, looking quite ill at the idea.

"Well, you know how those medieval wizards were. Obsessed."

Having decided to hide the book completely from Hermione a week ago, after a rather heated argument, Lynn's conscience was bothering her a little. So these discussions were all part of the coping process, re-affirming the belief over and over that Hermione was just being Hermione, and that the book wasn't all bad.

Unfortunately, hiding it meant she couldn't use the book in classes as she had told Hermione it had been disposed of. But honestly, it was a brilliant learning tool anyway, so her grades were only slightly suffering from the sudden withdrawal of support. Hermione didn't seem suspicious and was even pleasantly surprised with her increased inexplicable understanding of potions. It didn't stop Lynn's blood pressure from skyrocketing every time Hermione came into close contact with the book though. Thankfully, Hermione had yet to scrutinise the disguised textbook properly. So the ruse had yet to be tested. But as with all things in Lynn's life, it eventually went pear-shaped.

They retired to their dorm late into the evening that night. Meeting behind the privacy of the hangings and spells on Lynn's bed, as they tended to do before going to sleep most nights. Lynn was laying back against the pillows with her legs in Hermione's lap, dozing as the bushy haired witch read some of her books.

Hermione finished the section in her herbology textbook she had been summarising, and began looking through her book bag for another to add to the now tottering pile to her right.

"Lynn, have you still got my astronomy book?"

"Hmm, bag." Lynn mumbled in a barely conscious slur which put a warm smile on Hermione's face, but it didn't buy her enough good graces to be allowed to fall asleep when she should have been studying herself.

Lynn let out an undignified yelp of surprise when Hermione tickled the bottom of her bare feet, successfully stopping her from snoozing on the job. For her part Lynn just let out a noise of protest once she had recovered and moved to bury her face in the pillows, feet now safely out of reach.

Mission accomplished, Hermione snagged the strap of Lynn's bag from where her girlfriend had neatly placed it beside the bed and started sifting through the contents. At this moment, an alert rang loud in the drowsy haze of Lynn's mind, but it was already too late.

"Err… Lynn, what's this?"

Lynn's head was suddenly a buzz of curses and frantic scrambling as she clawed herself back from the edge of sleep. "What's what Herm?" she asked in as neutral a tone as she could manage, sitting up to see Hermione holding the prince's book in her hand. She felt the blood drain from her face, despite her desperately trying not to react.

"The luxurious lingerie catalogue, curtesy of Madame Vivienne, with tips and tricks on how to bewitch your partner." Hermione recited, clearly very amused, and ever so slightly embarrassed.

 _WHAT!?_

"I'm waiting for an answer Lynn…" But clearly not embarrassed enough to not recognise blackmail material when she saw it.

 _I am going to kill the twins. Then I'm going to take their limp, lifeless bodies to Madam Pomfrey so she can revive them. Then I'm going to kill them again and bury them under a pile of prefect badges._

"If you don't want to tell me… maybe I should take a look inside-"

"NO!" Lynn interrupted quickly, unconsciously reaching her hands out to stop her. Hermione just sat there with a sly grin on her face, holding the book out of Lynn's reach, waiting for her to continue. Lynn pulled her arms back, trying to reign in her panic and make her slip not look as desperate as it had been, her mind working frantically for a believable response. When a solution presented itself she didn't allow herself time to think before she blurted it out, a decision she quickly regretted.

"You can't look. It's a… surprise." Lynn said haltingly, a red flush creeping up her neck as the words she had just said bounced around in her head. Each silent repetition of them sounding worse than the last.

"A surprise?" Hermione asked, clearly just as startled as Lynn that those words had actually come out of her mouth.

"When were you thinking of giving me this surprise?" Hermione said slowly, as if she barely dared, while biting her bottom lip. Which caused even more distracting thoughts for Lynn to throw themselves at her while she was trying to tie together an understandable sentence.

"I… don't really… haven't… thought of a particular date." Lynn forced out, completely flustered, and trying to convince herself that she wasn't about to start hyperventilating.

"Ok, well, I think it's awfully unfair if you have a surprise for me, but I don't have one for you… so… I'll see if I can find something… interesting, that you will enjoy too." Hermione said coyly.

If she wasn't hyperventilating before, she was now.

Lynn only managed to make a strangled sound in response, heat practically radiating from her face, her arms alternating between hiding her face and wrapping protectively around her middle. Hermione, seemingly oblivious to Lynn's mortification, placed a cheerful goodnight kiss on the only part of Lynn's cheek that wasn't covered by a hand and retreated to her own bed.

It was encroaching on midnight when Lynn finally managed to drift off into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

"Two tablespoonful's taken with breakfast. One perfect day."

"Yeah, except that isn't two tablespoonful's." Interjected Ron helpfully.

Lynn slowly dragged her eyes from the carefully measured teaspoon of felix felicis to glare at the redhead.

"Don't ruin the moment, Ronald." Lynn said in a low hiss, as if he had just interrupted her favourite part in a play, before returning her reverie to the teaspoon again.

"Sitting in the bowl of this spoon is the culmination of all my plans, and I intend to savour the moment." Lynn said in a whisper, staring at the glistening liquid. Ron and Hermione both rolled their eyes.

"Are you sure this is the only way to get Slughorn's memory? You haven't even spoken with him about it yet." Hermione asked, still not entirely convinced Lynn wasn't wasting her rare prize.

"And what, ask him if he's given any information out on incredibly dark magic to students within the last 60 years? Seems a bit risky, don't you think?" Lynn replied, with an air of impatience that could only be gained through repetition.

Hermione just held up her hands in surrender and said no more, clearly just as fed up arguing her point as Lynn was.

"Well, here's to your demise, Tom old pal." Lynn said, carefully holding the teaspoon aloft in an imitation of a toast before tipping the felix felicis down her throat. Her face remained expressionless for a moment, before a large smile started creeping across her face.

"How does it feel?" Hermione asked, a familiar glint of curiosity appearing in her eyes.

"No time to chat. Gotta run!" Lynn cried dramatically, abruptly leaping up and dashing from the hall. Hermione and Ron exchanged a look of mingled surprise and alarm before running after her, the loud rebuke of Professor McGonagall going unheard.

"How can someone so short run so fast?" Ron exclaimed as they rounded the corner to see Lynn already halfway up the staircase.

"Lots of practice." Hermione panted back, struggling to keep up with Ron's longer stride.

Lynn lead them all the way up to the seventh floor at a dead run, at which point Hermione was completely incapable of standing a moment longer, and promptly collapsed against the wall when Lynn slowed to a stop. Ron wasn't faring much better, panting heavily and resting his hands on his knees.

"Buggering hell Lynn, wh-" Lynn smacked a hand over the redhead's mouth, stopping his question mid word, and made a shushing gesture. Once he had got the message she withdrew and donned her invisibility cloak, whispering for them to stay put. Hermione and Ron waited about a minute before Lynn re-appeared with a flourish, took Hermione by the arm and began half leading, half dragging her down the corridor to their right. Immediately striking up a very one sided conversation about muggle haircare products.

The corridor was inhabited only by a tapestry showing trolls being taught ballet, and a very small girl holding a heavy set of brass scales. The girl didn't even seem to notice them. As they drew level with her, Lynn pulled Hermione to a stop.

"Are you okay?" Lynn said, addressing the dazed looking young girl, sounding and looking concerned. Though Hermione could detect excitement behind the façade, which didn't bode at all well.

The girl blinked up at her, as if only now noticing them and then examined the scales in her hands, seemingly surprised at its presence. Obviously seeing no reason to continue holding them she placed them on the floor and appeared to realise she hadn't responded.

"I feel weird." The girl said with a slight slur.

"Well, that's helpful." Ron mumbled behind them, earning a truly magnificent glare from Hermione. When it became clear that she was about to whisk the girl off to the hospital wing, Lynn came in with a timely intervention.

"I'll say. You must be starving! Having to stand in this corridor all day." Lynn said, with a dangerous amount of enthusiasm.

"Yeah, but I gotta stay here." The girl said this rather weakly and visibly wavered in her determination. One final prod had her resolve crumbling.

"Whatever the reason you can't risk your health over it! Maybe you should go have a snack. You can always come back afterwards, no one needs to know you even left."

"Yeah, I like that idea. It's boring standing here anyway." And with that the girl turned and headed in the direction of the main hall on unsteady legs.

When she was out of sight Hermione rounded on Lynn like an angry tigress.

"What did you do to that girl!? Did you drug her!? What in Merlin's sag-"

"That was Goyle wasn't it?" Ron said, mercifully cutting off Hermione's angry tirade. "I'd recognise that voice anywhere, even if it was a bit higher in pitch than I'm used to…"

"Yep." Lynn said, popping the 'p' and gleefully watched as the wind was taken out of Hermione's sails mid word.

"Were you about to swear over Merlin's Sag-"

Hermione's hand slapped over Lynn's mouth before the syllables could be uttered, blushing furiously.

"No! Of course I wasn't. Now let's get a move on and do… whatever it was you were going to do."

Lynn smiled brightly and merely walked over to where the room of requirement's door 'usually' appeared. And sure enough, after Lynn had performed the customary three passes, a door materialised out of the stonework.

"How did you know what to ask for?" Hermione asked, bewildered.

Lynn shrugged sheepishly. "I didn't. Draco is clearly hiding something, so I just asked for somewhere to hide stuff."

Hermione opened her mouth, preparing to say how improbably lucky Lynn was sometimes, but realised how stupid it would sound in the current situation. Choosing instead to sulkily bemoan the defeat of statistics and probability at the hands of magic in the comfort of her own head.

"Time for us to finally find out what Draco is up to." Lynn declared cheerily, oblivious to Hermione's inner thoughts. She held a hand out for the door handle, but before her slender fingers had even touched the undoubtedly cold iron, she stopped, cocking her head to one side thoughtfully.

"What are you waiting for?" Ron said confusedly.

"You know what? I'll let him keep his secrets, just this once." Lynn said breezily, as if what she had just said was not at complete odds with her character.

"What!?" Both Ron and Hermione said in unison, Ron incredulous and Hermione just plain confused.

"It just doesn't seem like the right time. You know what I mean?" Lynn said easily, without any hint of indecision.

"But you've been going on about this for months!" Ron complained in disbelief.

"I know. Weird, right? I need another hobby or something."

Hermione just closed her eyes for a moment, letting out a long calming breath, and with patience gained through great effort and experience, nodded her acceptance of this new turn of events.

"B-but, Malfoy." Ron spluttered.

Lynn just shrugged her shoulders, as if to say 'what can you do?', like these feelings were just a common occurrence for everyone. Ron still seemed mutinous, but eventually gave in with a disappointed groan when the two girls started off without him.

"Professor! Lovely day for an adventure, don't you think?"

Ron blinked in surprise as the tall form of Dumbledore made his way down the passageway, peering curiously over his spectacles at Lynn, who waved enthusiastically at him as she passed, hand unapologetically intertwined with Hermione's.

"I dare say it is." He said, with the slightest twitch of his lips the only thing showing his amusement, eyes briefly flicking down to the girls' clasped hands. If his gaze grew a little warmer and sadder at the sight, nobody noticed.

The trio turned the corner in the passage just as Dumbledore paused outside the door to the room of requirement, looking at it with faint recollection and curiosity.

They made their way down through the castle at a much more measured pace than their way up. Lynn not seeming to have a specific destination in mind, meandering from one side of the castle to another, slipping suspicious packages – that she just so happened to have on her – into students' pockets as she went. Hermione was not at all happy about this, but she didn't feel the need to stop Lynn's harmless fun this time. And just when she was beginning to realise how very lenient that was, the trio's attention was drawn to a commotion in the hall ahead.

"T wast the Weasley wench, the lady drugg'd me! Such assaults on mine own p'rson shouldst not wend unpunished!"

"…I'm sorry Mr Finnigan?"

"The lady did pour a potion into mine own goblet at breakfast."

Slughorn sighed and asked Ginny to hand over the potion, which she did without protest. He examined it by holding the small vile up to the light and after a cautious sniff, dabbed some on his finger to taste.

He hummed in evident satisfaction, his evaluation clearly confirming his suspicions.

"A curious brew Miss Weasley, and a stout one at yond." He turned what he clearly thought was a sympathetic expression to Seamus, "I dare sayeth – excuse me – you'll be speaking more… classically, for a good few hours yet Mr Finnigan."

Seamus didn't seem to find this particularly agreeable, immediately demanding that Ginny hand over the antidote. It quickly became apparent that Ginny didn't have the antidote however, which caused him further agitation, and interestingly enough made his words become even more archaic. He was almost completely impossible to understand by the time Slughorn managed to usher him away with assurances that Ginny would be serving detention. When Seamus was out of sight Slughorn didn't bother hiding his interest in the potion, asking her to accompany him to his office to tell him about it. Ginny wasn't stupid enough to refuse.

When she heard that, Lynn perked up and turned to her companions, "I'm off, see you guys in the common room later."

She had vanished under the invisibility cloak before they had a chance to object.

"I really wish she wouldn't do that." Hermione griped, already walking off in the direction of the tower.

"Still here." Came Lynn's disembodied voice.

Ron looked back at Hermione, "I think she knew that mate."

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks Ron."

"Anytime."

* * *

Ginny wasn't having a great morning.

She had woken up late, missing most of breakfast; had somehow managed to argue with Dean on the way down here, then again, that wasn't too surprising this week; then Dean's limpet of a friend Seamus had been moaning about Lynn's pick for the quidditch team, again. Prat. She had promised McGonagall not to curse her fellow pupils this year and she intended to keep that promise.

But damn was it hard sometimes.

And Ginny would have left it at that, deciding to be the better person that is, but today just seemed to insist on provoking her. Seamus eventually crossed that invisible line in Ginny's head, which meant not causing him some kind of torment for his pig-headedness was no longer an option. It hadn't taken much effort to slip one of the potions the twins had insisted she carry around this year – for 'experimental purposes' – into his drink when he wasn't paying attention.

She had eaten no more than a bite of her eggs on toast before accusations were thrown and things got out of hand. All she wanted was to eat her eggs in peace.

The likelihood of her getting her wish now firmly extinguished, she was glumly making her way to Slughorn's office, on a Saturday, while he was making meaningless conversation about some famous potion inventor he had known. Perhaps she should just crawl back into bed and sleep till lunch when Slughorn released her. If he released her.

Her musings where cut short when a hand suddenly gripped her own, making her jump out of her skin. It didn't let go when she reflexively flinched away, instead it gave her fingers a squeeze before retreating back into invisibility. There was only one person that could be, and the message was clear. She wanted in. Today was finally becoming interesting.

"And you say your brothers invented this?" the professor asked, oblivious to their tag-along.

Now she had a as of yet unknown goal to motivate her, faking the smile and enthusiasm wasn't half as hard. She told Slughorn about the twins more trivial experiments, careful not to incriminate them, not that Slughorn seemed at all interested in the dangers of what they were doing. Showing much more interest in their obvious talent for mayhem, which Ginny thought was kind of ironic, him being a teacher and all.

They got to his office and entered, Ginny careful to leave the door open long enough for a still invisible Lynn to sneak in. Once they were inside the professor quizzed her on her brothers' products, becoming more animated as the discussion went on.

It was in one of his more enthusiastic moments that Ginny noticed movement behind him, and her eyes widened in horror as a floating hand started to write on the now clear blackboard not three feet from Slughorn, who could no doubt turn around at any moment. Her focus now split between Slughorn and the blackboard, she continued to nod agreeably to whatever the Slytheryn head of house said while her eyes continued to flick anxiously to the slowly appearing writing.

"Ask about Gwenog Jones, he knows her."

 _He_ _knows_ _Gwenog Jones!?_

"Sir…"

"…but of course- I'm sorry Miss Weasley did you say something?"

"Yes sir, I was just wondering that, well… One-of-my-friends-told-me-you-knew-Gwenog-Jones." Ginny said in a rush, excitement replacing the nervousness she had been feeling moments earlier.

"Ahh, indeed I do. I take it you are a fan?" Slughorn said jovially.

Ginny couldn't help herself and nodded emphatically. There was a clearly audible snort somewhere to her left, so she sent her most terrifying glare in that general direction, before turning her attention back to more important things. Like someone who knew Gwenog Jones.

"Well, this is quite the coincidence!" Slughorn exclaimed in obvious pleasure, a calculating glint in his eyes. "She sent me the broom she used before joining the Holyhead Harpies a few years back, would you like to see it?"

Ginny was unable to speak in her excitement, and when Slughorn beckoned her into his private quarters she almost skipped across the threshold, before she realised she had forgotten to hold the door for Lynn. When she turned, intending to find an excuse to go back out, the heavy wooden door jarred to a stop with a thump, leaving room for her shadow to slip through before it shut.

The redhead winced in sympathy and returned to Slughorn, who was now standing by his extensive collection of memorabilia.

Lynn clutched at her throbbing foot under the invisibility cloak, soundlessly mouthing curses that would have made Charlie Weasley proud, while half listening to the conversation now going on between Ginny and the professor.

"This reminds me…" the potions professor said in what was clearly meant to be a pensive tone, "I am having a party before the winter holidays and I'm quite certain Gwenog said that she could attend this year. I would be delighted to introduce you."

Ginny didn't seem to notice the professor's rather bad acting skills, by now already imagining what Slughorn was proposing and very much liking the idea.

"I wonder if you could do me a small favour in return my dear?" The professor said hopefully.

The redhead, far too happy at the proposed meeting with her idol to care, told him to continue.

"I would very much appreciate it if you put in a good word with your brothers. I may be able to help them with their research, I am a potions master after all! And I know several former students of mine who have similar talents…"

Lynn didn't listen to the rest of Soughorn's sales pitch, but by the look on Ginny's face it was going to be successful no matter what he said. Instead, her attention was caught by another door going into what looked like a private study, felix felicis tugging her towards it incessantly.

She slipped in with minimal effort and came face to face with a large ancient writing desk, stacked with papers. Taking off the cloak and moving around the desk to sit on the over-stuffed armchair behind it, she started examining the papers in interest. Some were letters from former students; Lynn recognised a few names here and there. The rest were clearly administrative and rather benign. She sat back in disappointment, unsure what to do now or even what she was looking for.

Noticing a small bookshelf in the corner of the room she made to move around the desk again to check it, but became snagged on something. A previously obscured draw on the desk had opened slightly, revealing several thin books. Runes lined the wood which had not been present mere moments ago, Lynn's rudimentary understanding only gleaning the meaning of two. One to 'hide or obscure', obviously, and the other to 'protect', ish… It had a far more complex meaning than Lynn could comfortably understand. Her only solace was in the fact that half of the runes did not appear to be active, but what that meant was a mystery to her. Hermione could have told her if it was safe to be sure.

Lynn bit her lip in momentary nervousness.

 _This could be a really bad idea…_

Before she could talk herself out of it, she grabbed the handle and yanked the draw open fully, before fishing out three leather bound books, the two oldest looking bound with twine. Luckily, nothing happened, all the runes now appearing deactivated as the draw's contents was removed.

"You've got to be kidding me…" Lynn muttered, opening the unbound book and finding detailed accounts of Slughorn's innermost thoughts on several events. It was a diary.

Excitement bubbled up in Lynn as she contemplated just how far back these accounts could go. After discarding the middle diary, it starting its account in 1966, she finally found the entry she had been hoping to find in the diary that had been on the very bottom of the draw. Slughorn's account of his conversation with Riddle, concerning horcruxes.

The year was 1943.

The page in question had many annotations and sections that had clearly been removed and later replaced, but what was written depicted a very different conversation to the fake memory in the pensive. Lynn was convinced of its truth the moment she read through the passage. It was too horrifying not to be.

Seven. Seven pieces of soul bound to the earth, preventing Voldemort from dying. For there was little doubt in Lynn's mind that the madman would have gone ahead with that ambition. The man who wanted to kill her was, for all intents and purposes, immortal.

A feeling of dread pooled in her gut. Suddenly, the morning's antics no longer made her feel so free.

She retained enough presence of mind to quickly duplicate the diary, slipping the originals back in their rightful place as if untouched, before exciting the private study. Ginny and Slughorn were still talking over by his collection of photographs, but Lynn paid them no mind, wanting to get away as quick as possible. They did not notice her leave.

* * *

A/N: So it's Lynn's turn to make a 'mistake' and Hermione will need to figure out how she is going to deal with it.

Conflict in relationships is needed. No two people agree on everything and it's healthy to get those issues out in the open. So long as both parties make the effort to listen and empathise, not necessarily agree but come to an understanding, then the relationship will have the opportunity to grow stronger. The same can be said for the mistakes we all make. The ability to accept and forgive someone's faults is essential to a strong relationship. You can't just have the good parts of a person's character, it's a package deal. And if you don't accept all of it, the depth of that friendship cannot develop. These two characters have learned their morals in vastly different home environments, so misunderstandings are inevitable even after years of friendship. Truly and completely understanding another is something you can spend a lifetime working towards and still not achieve. Don't worry about our favourite pair though, they work it out in the next chapter.

One last thing. You may have noticed – and hopefully it's not too obvious – that I don't tend to beta my chapters. If you do spot anything you think I should revise then please let me know. I always appreciate feedback.

Until next time.

BB


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